In America, it is established that woman die in childbirth at a higher rate than any other country. Black women are three times more likely to have maternal death than any other race in America. 

There are about 700 deaths dealing with maternal death each year, among the various measure of death, 75% have been determined to be preventable. In the U.S., mortality rates 17.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. Unfortunately, the rates are higher amongst black women which average 43.5 deaths per 100,000 live births. 

This maternal death relating to black women are discovered to be due to underling chronic conditions, structural racism, implicit bias, and healthcare quality. 

In the early 20th century, some states had established Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs) which investigated the deaths that are related to maternal deaths. Overtime, it became inactive due to the decrease in death in child birth pertain poor medical practices.

Since 2016, the MMRCs resurfaced into interest die to the increase of maternal mortality rates of death by race. 

As a doctor, providing necessary care to patients is important. It is critical to know important information concerning the patients’ health including listening objectively to symptoms to be able to determine a logical diagnosis. A bias doctor tends to disbelief symptoms of black women resulting to misdiagnosing conditions.

Black women tend to live in unstable neighborhoods that result in high violence crime rates and high air pollutions than white women. This has resulted to discrimination in income inequality which leads to health disparities. 

Rural communities access barriers dealing with healthcare. This had affected their ability to obtain the care that they generally need. The rural community have insufficient access to appropriate healthcare success.

For the rural communicates to have access to sufficient healthcare, finances are required to pay for service, transportation to appropriate location of serve, and health literacy.

Reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2018, 9.1% of the rural communities were without any type of healthcare insurance. Rural residents had delay on receiving any healthcare due to the cost.

Additionally, a report of healthcare workforce shortage had limited the supply of available service of healthcare. In the rural areas, 62.93% of Primary Care Health was short as of Dec. 2019. 

Rural communities lack access to transportation. These individuals more than likely must travel longer distance to access most healthcare services. Most individuals who are in the rural communities have chronical conditions which require multiple visits to the healthcare facilities. 

This has created challenges as transportation are inaccessible. 

Health literacy has a massive barrier with the rural community. This had impacted the patient’s ability to understand the necessary information from their healthcare provider. 

Written by: Sabrina Sclater